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Jail, caning for man who hit wife and slapped their 2-year-old son, punched teen at void deck

SINGAPORE — Shortly after a 28-year-old man assaulted his wife and two-year-old son, he threatened to cut her with a knife when she wanted to leave him with their child in tow.

A Singaporean man pleaded guilty to four charges that included criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt to a person with whom he was in an intimate relationship.

A Singaporean man pleaded guilty to four charges that included criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt to a person with whom he was in an intimate relationship.

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  • A 28-year-old man first assaulted his wife and son when they argued about his gambling habits
  • When she tried to leave him and called his cousin for help, he threatened to cut her with a knife
  • He later helped to harass a debtor and punched a 14-year-old boy in an unprovoked attack

SINGAPORE — Shortly after a 28-year-old man assaulted his wife and two-year-old son, he threatened to cut her with a knife when she wanted to leave him with their child in tow.

For this and unrelated unlicensed moneylending offences, he was on Monday (Dec 13) sentenced to two years and eight months’ jail, along with five strokes of the cane.

The Singaporean, who cannot be named due to a court order to protect his victims’ identities, pleaded guilty to four charges that included criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt to a person with whom he was in an intimate relationship.

Two other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that on the evening of Nov 23 last year, the couple, who lived in a public housing block along Teck Whye Crescent, were arguing in their bedroom about his gambling habits.

The man’s wife, now aged 27, was sitting on the bed with their son.

During the argument, he punched her once above her breast and kicked her once in the abdomen, then struck the top of her head with an iPhone. He also slapped the boy’s cheek.

When she stood up from the bed, he pushed her shoulders with such force that she collided with a portable air-conditioner behind her.

He apologised to her after this, but she remained quiet and went to bed. She woke up the next day to find a bruise above her breast and also felt pain on the right side of her body.

The next day, she decided to leave her husband and wanted to apply for a personal protection order against him.

However, he grew suspicious upon noticing the clothes she had placed in their son’s pram. He tried to prevent her from leaving with the boy and chased her out of the house after getting his bank card and her mobile phone from her.

She then called his cousin for help, and the woman turned up at the house with her husband and some other family members.

At this point, the man — who was in the flat with his son — refused to open the door unless his wife left, so everyone except his cousin and her husband left to wait at a nearby staircase landing.

When he spoke with his cousin, he felt that she was protecting his wife and grew unhappy.

He retrieved a bread knife, saying he wanted to go out and hit his wife with it, but his cousin’s husband physically restrained him from doing this.

He then swung the weapon and told them: “Let me cut her” and “Sister, you go out. I cannot control myself anymore”.

Feeling afraid, his cousin left the flat. The man was later arrested.

HARASSED DEBTOR, PUNCHED TEEN IN FACE

Following these offences, the man agreed to become a runner for an unlicensed moneylender. He accompanied an 18-year-old youth to harass a debtor in the wee hours of March 19 this year.

He filmed the teenager splashing Zippo lighter fluid onto the victim’s main door and setting it on fire. He earned S$150 from this before being arrested two days later.

Finally, on Sept 13 this year, he targeted a 14-year-old student who was on his way to school with his younger brother. They were waiting at a void deck of a block of flats in Bukit Panjang.

The boy was looking at a car in the car park, but the accused thought the boy was looking at him and approached him.

The accused, who suffered from a skin disease, felt offended that the boy seemed to be staring at him. He asked the victim if he was doing so and when the victim replied in the negative, the accused punched him on his face.

The accused asked, “You play what shirt?”, meaning whether he belonged to any gang, before he walked away.

Court documents did not state when he was arrested for this.

For voluntarily causing hurt to a person he was in an intimate relationship with, he could have been jailed up to six years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.

Related topics

crime court assault family unlicensed moneylender

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